Digital Sabbath

I'm on vacation Saturday, July 24 - Sunday, August 1.

Previously this has often meant that work moves to the beach. But not this year.

I'm taking a totally digital Sabbath (except for my Kindle b/c that's where my books are) and the weaning begins today with this blog.

No more posts starting today. No more email starting tomorrow. No more phone starting Sunday (once the whole family has arrived and there's no need to text my sister to ask "Where are you now?")

May God bless you with a Sabbath as well. See you August 2.

Trust

Do our parishioners trust us (their pastors)?

I'm not sure about that.

In my last post, as I wrote about serious institutional change and the need for pastors to be able to come in and do what they know how to do with a no-fire contract for 5-10 years. In a dream world, Presbyteries and other middle judicatory leaders would also come in and share what they really see happening in a certain congregation (i.e. They are a healthy church; They are a healthy-ish church; They should close.)

But a glaring problem is this: people do not trust their pastors or their church executives/honchos. Why is that?

• Some of us are not trustworthy. We have committed misconduct. We have made our ministry about us and not about obeying God.


• It's entirely possible to confuse obeying God with obeying the pastor (and pastors are not perfect. We get confused as well.)


• We forget that context is crucial and what worked in Church A will not work in Church B. We need to know our congregations and the neighborhoods in which those congregations live.


• People are afraid of change because it involves loss. Will change mean losing the familiar piece of church that reminds us of our childhood? Will change mean losing the ability/privilege of worshipping in exactly the way we wish to worship (and therefore threatening our particular connection to God?) Will change mean that more is asked of us (God forbid)? Will change mean that people forget my beloved mother (when we remove that hideous portrait of her in the church library)?

Lencioni famously includes lack of trust in the Five Dysfunctions of a Team, and the church is loaded with distrust these days - much like institutions in general. We don't trust Congress. We don't trust The Church. We don't trust The Media.

Who do we trust?

According to the GFK Group (2009) the most trustworthy occupations are:

1. Firefighter

2. Teachers

3. Doctors/Nurses

4. Postal Workers

5. Members of the Armed Forces

The least trustworthy according to the same survey are attorneys, journalists, and politicians. Used car salesmen didn't make the list.

Sadly, I think our congregations don't trust us. Maybe they haven't noticed that we love them (or maybe we don't love them; this would be our first problem.) Maybe they actually don't trust each other. Maybe they believe it's "their church" and we are so temporary that all they have to do is wait us out and things can get back to "normal."

Parishioners out there: I'd love to hear from you in particular.

Can you share your thoughts on trusting the pastor to direct the future of the congregation in a way that will be vital, faithful, and obedient to God?

Do you trust your pastor(s)? I'd really like to know. I'm happy for my own parishioners to answer this anonymously.

Turning a Church Around (with a No-Fire Contract)

A Middle Judicatory Church Leader* once told me that their staff had A Secret List regarding the congregations in their Presbytery. The list was broken down into three parts:

• The healthy congregations
  
• The congregations that would collapse with a single major crisis
  
• The dead congregations that should probably have closed years ago.
  

The largest grouping was the would-collapse-with-a-single-major-crisis.

It's no secret that many congregations are struggling. In fact most congregations are struggling in some way. The issues involve everything from financial strains to cultural shifts to demographic changes.

Most congregations say they "want to grow" and become churches equipped for 21st Century ministry. But the reality is that growth = change, and few congregations are willing and ready to make the inevitable changes. We need leaders specially equipped for transitioning churches that are serious about turning around. (Note: Most people I went to seminary with in the 1980s have no idea how to do this and are happy to do ministry in a 1950s model until they retire.)

Here's the thing: These transformative pastors need a no-fire contract for at least five years.
Every congregation introducing necessary shifts experiences conflict. Every one.

Like Moses who led God's people out of slavery - which seemed like such a good idea - the masses turned on him when daily changes ensued. They threatened him. They wanted to go back - even if going back involved a return to slavery.

Welcome to the shift from a 1950s church (or a 1970s church for that matter) to a 21st Century Church. And for all the congregations established in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries the shifts are particularly scary for many faithful people.

"What do you mean we need to reconfigure (or get rid of) the pews?"

"What do you mean we need to re-think church staffing?"

"But we've always (favorite activity here.)"

Changing beloved practices, structures, and procedures makes people angry. They will attack the ones who are leading those changes.

This is why such pastors who have been called to help such congregations "turn around" need a couple essential tools:

1) A 'no fire' contract. Obviously those called to this must be people of profound faith in God, peerless integrity, and lavish compassion. They need Middle Judicatory oversight in case they forget that this is not about them. But they must be free to make the hard calls without fear of reprisal in the form of a pink slip.

2) A Middle Judicatory Executive who backs them up. There will be long-time members, bullies, and even new members who will send nasty blind-copied emails. They will threaten the pastor. They will threaten the pastor's family (I know what I'm talking about here.) The bottom line is that - if a congregation decides it's serious about growth and what it will take to grow - they must support the one who will lead this endeavor. That pastor will need someone to come in and ask troublemakers to accept the changes or leave.

3) Prayer and a true calling. (Clearly this is the most essential tool.) If God has called a pastor to lead and a congregation to change, it will happen - perhaps with messy weeping and gnashing of teeth - but it will happen. Prayer will keep everybody focussed.

We are at an exciting time in the history of Christ's Church. Things have changed. And this is not a problem as long as God is the One moving us.

Painting of Exodus by Richard McBee (1999)

*In institutional church world pastors work with people called Middle Judicatory Church Executives - leaders who who oversees the ministry of a presbytery or other region.

What Do You Do Every Sunday?

Is there anything you do every Sunday?

I know a church that asks new members to make the commitment to be in their own congregational worship service every Sunday unless they are sick, traveling, or working. Maybe that's what most congregations experience - that people indeed gather every Sunday unless there are special circumstances.

Or maybe people attend only occasionally and call themselves "regulars." The national average percentage of people who say they attend religious services at least once a week is a mere 39%. The majority of worshippers in our own Sunday morning service attend 1-2 times each month.

I used to have no problems with this (Hey, sometimes a person just needs to sleep in, and besides church is a 7-day-a-week commitment and it's not just about Sundays. Maybe my Sabbath can be on a Tuesday.)

I've decided, now, that I do have a problem with this. It's about being a community. Basically, it's hard to build a spiritual community if people are not present at least once/week with each other.

Let's say a couple visits your church on a given Sunday and they connect with another couple who have been a part of that church for a few years. The visiting couple returns the next week looking for their new friends, but the member couple doesn't return to worship for 2-3 weeks. They have brunches to attend, work travel, a family wedding. The visitors may or may not return. They wonder why those "members" have never been seen again.

As I've written before, our community in Our Nation's Capital is particularly transient. Nobody is "from here" and so we travel on weekends to go to friends' baby showers in other states, or we attend business conferences on distant coasts, or we have just flown in from somewhere and we're too tired to rally for Sunday morning worship. Or maybe the baby's sick. Or maybe there's a travel soccer game at 9:30 am.

How do we build community in these times? I believe people long for this.

In our own congregation, we offer multiple times each week to get together. A group meets for 1/2 price burgers every Monday night. There's a women's group every Tuesday night. A Wednesday night Bible study will start up again in September. Choir meets every Thursday night. Every Friday night is movie night for some. And a guy's group meets every Saturday morning. And then there's Sunday.

If we get together other times during the week, our community grows and flourishes. But for those who only connect on Sunday mornings, it's hard to be a community together. If we only see each other once a month or less, how do we check in with each other, know what's going in each other's lives.

Don't get me started about churches in which people come in, sit down, and never exchange more than shallow pleasantries with each other.

I'm talking about the kind of church in which you walk in and someone you know fairly well says, "I've missed you" or "How did your sister's surgery go?" or "How do you like your new job?" This is the church. At least it's the church I want to be a part of.

What do you do every Sunday?

Image is Seurat's Sunday in the Park with George also known as Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. (1884-1886)

Ministry in Transient Times

Our denomination has clear rules about pastors who leave a congregation and their ongoing relationship with that congregation. In a nutshell, their formal relationship ends when they - the pastors - move on.

This is not necessarily the case when church members and friends move on.

Although our congregation is very transient (the average tenure of a member is about 6 years) relationships - and often pastoral care - continue in spite of geographic distance. Part of our congregation now lives in Hawaii, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Colorado, New York, Jordan, Thailand, Germany, and Iraq - as well as other parts of Virginia and Maryland.

In many ways, I remain their pastor. When their family members die, I'm called. When their children are born, I'm called. Sometimes, even if they've joined another congregation, I'm called for pastoral care. My most memorable/saddest example of this involved a guy who used to be a member and had actually joined another congregation, but he continued to call me regarding some family issues. I didn't mind, really, but when I asked him why he wasn't going to his new pastor with these problems, he confessed that part of his family issues were a result of the affair he was having with his new pastor.

I share these things not to complain. Actually I appreciate and treasure these relationships very much. But this speaks to the fact that - in the 21st Century Church - as we are both more globally connected and more likely to move around more, we need to recognize that congregational boundaries need to be more fluid.

I have friends who are connected to multiple congregations. I know pastors who invite their predecessors (often retired pastors) to share in pastoral care with them. It's less about membership rules and more about relationships.

But it impacts the on-site membership and ministry. If a parishioner continues to believe that membership is about having your name on the church rolls rather than having a relationship with Jesus and others, there could be resentment if the pastor is spending time with people who are no longer "on the rolls."

While we could all - most likely - work smarter and keep healthier boundaries, relationships don't end just because formal membership ends or changes. Former pastors can cause conflict when they don't "move on." But even when they do, is it wrong to stay connected? Is it okay for former parishioners to stay connected with their "old churches" - even in terms of asking for pastoral support?

Photo of the laying on of hands via Skype. Not sure I'm into this level of Skyping, but we have Skyped during evening worship with faraway friends we miss.

Mission and Marketing

There's a Presbyterian Church in Baghdad.

It's doing relatively well, considering there's a war in their country, according to Yousef al-Saka, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Iraq. They have a youth group, a women's group, and Sunday School. The Christian refugees who have escaped to Jordan and Syria are not faring as well.

We don't hear about these sisters and brothers in faith because they have zero PR.

If we believe the Susan Komen Foundation, breast cancer is the #1 threat to women in the 21st Century. Actually, the reality is that heart disease reigns as the #1 killer of women - at least in the USA. But Nancy Brinker has the money and imagination to create a foundation that brings us Pink Cheerios boxes during Breast Cancer Month.

There is no Middle Eastern Christian month.

When we hear of certain global needs that were previously unknown to us, we might assume that either :

- This is some kind of scam (because how could we - informed people that we are - be unaware of these problems. Maybe they aren't legit.)

OR

- These people are among the neediest of the needy. They don't even have advocates much less a foundation.

Middle Eastern Christians are perhaps the best Christians in the world, in that they have been forgotten by those of us in the West, and yet they continue to be faithful. Or they try.

These people are increasingly my passion and yet it scares me a little.

We are called - as followers of Jesus - to love those that have been forgotten. What is your passion these days?

Photo of bombing in Iraq by R. M-Y.

I'm Not Cool Enough

There's really nothing else to say.

Ringo's Still Performing - When Do We Step Aside?

Ringo Starr celebrated his 70th birthday with a concert last week. He doesn't need to work - at least financially - and plenty of people want him to continue working.

But what about the rest of us?

John Boehner suggests 70 as the new age to receive social security. And while my own denomination has no mandatory retirement age, the PCUSA does require annual contracts past the 70th birthday. (Our Board of Pensions calls this a post-normal retirement.)

When Anna Quindlen stepped aside from Newsweek last year to let younger voices make their contributions, it was applauded by millennials and really, by many of us who aren't millennials, even though she continues to be an excellent writer and thinker.

But as I find myself at an age when I could conceivably take early retirement in the next year - at least in terms of my chronological age - retirement doesn't seem to be an option. We'll have three kids in college this fall plus all the other monthly bills that everybody has. We can't retire in our 50s. Can't retire in our 60s. Our 70s? Our 80s?

I don't want to be one of those pastors who is already retired while still on the payroll, if you know what I mean. For for many of us, it's not a matter of stepping aside because we want to cling to power or plum positions. It's about economics.

My personal belief is that every church that strives to be viable if not vibrant in the 21st century must have a digital native on its staff. This is not optional. We have got to make room for younger and younger generations to serve.

Even if your congregation is in a rural part of the world, you must have a high school nearby with a student who could use an internship for his/her resume. Hire that student. Or call an educator, assistant, or associate pastor to your church staff who is under age 30.

And what does all this mean to second career seminarians? I have a friend who graduated from seminary at the age of 70. Can she expect to be called to a church? And if not, can we really assume it's only about her age? What if she is also a low energy person with a Constantinian Church perspective? If so, she will most likely never be called to a church position.

Obviously there are energetic, visionary pastors of every age. Just because a church calls a 29 year old senior pastor doesn't mean that church will start to "attract young families." In fact, some "young families" seem to prefer the tradition 60+ year old pastor with grandparently wisdom. It all depends on the pastor.

So, does "stepping aside" - like everything else in our postmodern times - depend on the situation?

Page 23 of this document from the United Methodists gives interesting info on mandatory retirement ages for several denominations. The whole document gives stats for the UMC. Also this is an excellent article on turning 70.

Image of septuagenarian Ringo Starr.